This invention relates generally to the field of shipping and more specifically to the delivery of goods purchased from a distant location.
Conventionally, products that are ordered by consumers, whether are ordered on the Internet or by other means, are delivered primarily in two ways. In the first way, the buyer/consumer travels to the seller's store and picks up products ordered there. The second way, the seller ships the products to the buyer via common carriers and buyer receives products at the address designated. Both ways are inefficient. The first method costs the buyer the time and energy expended traveling to the seller's store to pickup products ordered. The second method on the other hand, costs the buyer shipping and handling charges and usually takes a considerable amount of delivery time for the products to be shipped.
The following patents generally indicate the level and depth of prior art shipping systems.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,739, Cupps et al. disclose a system and method for providing an online ordering machine that manages the distribution of home delivered products over a distributed computer system. The patentee discloses that “The online ordering machine provides the customers with product information form various vendors whose delivery range is within the customer's location or with product information from vendors having a take out service within a specified range from the customer's location.”
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,375 Hall et al, disclose methods and systems for processing an order form a mobile customer and with the use of a method of global tracking a determination is made as to the completion of the order at a certain location at a certain time for the customer's arrival at that location.
Neither invention discloses a method and system that allows the seller to conveniently place a pickup station, which is mobile in nature and is easy to relocate, to a place close to the user's daily commute route and thereby provides maximum convenience for the buyer/user to pickup products ordered.
A conventional delivery system can be inefficient. Besides the problems conventional delivery system faced as previously discussed, the delivery of products to a buyer's address, normally made during daytime, can be troublesome. The buyer may not be present at the buyer's address to receive the products and the products may either be left unattended at the buyer's address or the buyer has to pick the product's up later at a common carrier's office. Even when a delivery is made to an office location where presumably someone will be at the address to receive the products, problems may exist. This is because the common carrier comes and goes following its delivery route and those buyers at the end of the delivery route may waste a significant amount of time waiting for the products to arrive. This waste of time may be crucial and can't be remedied unless a buyer pays a higher price for a faster delivery.
As we move into the Internet era, more and more people shop on the Internet. But lots of people are turned away from Internet purchasing because the long delivery time and expensive delivery charges involved.
An improved delivery system providing a more efficient way of delivery is, therefore, needed. The present invention meets such need.